


Worth It

by DarkJediQueen



Series: Sterek Bingo 2020 [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: First Time, M/M, Neighbors AU, One-Shot, Sterek Bingo 2020, actor!derek, writer!stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24036556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Stiles wasn't sure what he thought of his asshole neighbor.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Sterek Bingo 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726042
Comments: 22
Kudos: 282





	Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> **Word Count** : 11,729  
>  **Year** : Future  
>  **Spoilers** : Everything  
>  **Notes** : This is a completed One-shot. There will be no more written in the universe.  
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

Stiles grabbed his mail and sighed when he saw that the mail person had fucked up again and gave him mail of the guy who was next door. Derek Hale and he shared the top floor of the apartment building, and if Stiles never had to talk to him again, it would be too soon. Yet, the mail was impossible to give to the man without talking to him. Their slots didn't allow mail to be slipped through them, and even if Stiles left a note that said the mail guy needed to move it, it never got moved to the right box. Stiles looked through his mail and found the bits that were something that he needed to deal with and then slipped the other into the shredder that he had paid for and installed in the front entry of the building. He hated carrying his mail up to his place to shred, and there were enough idiots in the building who were going to get their name stolen and a credit card created in their name that the shredded had been well used since he had put it in. The cleaning lady who kept the entryway clean dumped the can daily. It was a top of the line model that not just shredded it into strips but also pretty much diced it after that. Stiles slipped his junk mail into it and then the flyers as well because watching the machine shared the stupid adverts was enough to make Stiles feel a little better.

The elevator was still down after one of the cables had been found a little worn, so Stiles headed up the stairs to the tenth floor. It had gone down the day before after a weird noise, and the Super had promised to have it up the next day. The elevator repair crew had been working until they had to go to lunch, and then it was just another little while before they back and working on it. Stiles hoped it was up that night as it was grocery day, but he didn't count on it. He was going to swap his daily routines if it wasn't. He could easily do his workout tonight and then do groceries tomorrow. Though he would probably shock everyone that he interacted with.

Stiles had routines in place for his life. It helped him manage his time. He had started that when he had gone to college, though in college, things were a little less rigid based on what his class of the day was and the homework that he was assigned. Since then, he had settled into a damned good routine that allowed him the maximum amount of fun to be had on the weekend. His friends made fun of him, but Stiles liked his life. The stairs were easy to crest for him. He worked out at the gym three times a week and did yoga daily in his home. He enjoyed having that kind of routine. Even if some people didn't like him and his routine. Stiles eyed the door to Derek's apartment. He knocked and waited for the door to be jerked open, and the man's murder gaze to land on him. Stiles was pretty sure that Derek was a serial killer, either in the making or already in the middle of his killing spree.

"What do you want?" Derek growled as he opened up the door.

Stiles held up his stack of mail and held it out to him. Derek took it like it offended him to touch it. Stiles still wasn't sure what was up with that. He had never met the man until the mail started to be messed up. And there was no way that Stiles was the reason behind the mail being messed up. Their names were nothing alike. It was just the stupid idiot mail carrier. Stiles had even taken the mail to the local post office hub and had given it to the clerk, telling her that he had got someone else's mail. She had been happy with him turning it in, and when Stiles had opened his mailbox the next day, it was there again. It had the right address on it, but it was stuck in the wrong box. After that, Stiles had just started to just give the mail to Derek a few days a week. He let it pile up inside until he just couldn't take it, and then he would give it to Derek. It was never more than three days.

Derek tossed the mail down on the table inside the door, or Stiles assumed there was something there. He didn't know for certain as Derek never even opened the door more than what was needed to have his body in the opening. Derek looked back at him like he thought that Stiles was going to jump him or something. Stiles backed up as he slipped his keys from his pants pocket. He never turned his back on Derek and slipped his eye into his door and let himself in. He shut the door and slid the deadbolt home. Derek Hale creeped him the fuck out. Stiles looked at his computer, where it was waiting for him to get back to writing his next book. He was well ahead of where he needed to be for the next book in his series, but all that meant was when he hit his next milestone that his agent wanted him to be at, he could work on his newest idea for another series.

Stiles grabbed his second pair of headphones form the stand where they were charging and slipped them on. He had put the others on charge when he had gone to get his mail. The headphones dying had been the perfect opportunity for him to get up and move around. He got his mail and had put his lunch in the oven. He had made it up the night before when he had cooked his dinner. The casserole would feed him for a few days for lunch. He looked at his cellphone, and the timer there and knew that he could get at least another thousand words out before he had to check his food. He was going to push Derek, and his serial killer ways out of his brain and focus on what he needed to.

* * *

Stiles grabbed his beer from the bar before nodding at the bartender before he headed back to his table. He had his laptop out, and he was working on plotting a little bit while he ate dinner. He needed to get out of his apartment. He had been holed up there for a week and a half other than his usual routine as he worked on the plot for the new book series that he had pitched to his publishing house. They had bought the rights, as Stiles knew that they would. He made them good money under his nom de plume. Stiles looked around the bar as he typed up the profile information for the first character that wasn't the main one. A rough but tender bartender who was the gateway to the new world that the main character was being dragged into.

A woman slid into the seat across from him. Stiles looked at her and tried to figure out what exactly he had done that would make her think that he needed to be hit on. He had his headphones on and hadn't said a single to word to anyone in the place outside of the waitress who took his order and the bartender when he went up for more beer. The woman just stared at him. Stiles saved his document and closed his laptop so that it went to sleep and then would be locked to anyone but him. He pulled his headphones off and draped them over his neck. He just stared at her.

"You know I expected you to be a lot more chatty."

"And I would care what you think about me, why?" Stiles asked.

"He didn't say you were sassy."

"What do you want, or do I need to have someone escort you out?" Stiles knew that the bartender would gladly have one of the people who were there to make sure shit didn't happen escort her out. Stiles came to this place at least twice during most weeks, the closer he was to a book being published, the more he came in.

"You need to leave my brother alone," the woman said.

"I would gladly leave your whole family alone, but I need to know exactly who you are, or at least who your brother is to be able to leave him alone." Stiles tried to figure out who he talked to enough that wasn't his friends that they would want him to leave them alone. He didn't talk to too many people. The girl at the check out for his weekly grocery trip. The guy who made sure that no one hurt themselves a the gym the three days that Stiles went there. He only talked to him about gym stuff. How to change what he was doing without hurting himself but pushing. It's what he was there for. If the guy didn't want Stiles talking to him about that shit, he needed to find a new job. The guy who seemed to always be working when he was at the coffee shop when he went for his late afternoon tea latte. That guy usually started to talk to Stiles first. Everyone else that he talked to was on the phone, and it was when he called his father, Scott, and Scott's mom. He did a dinner with them every Sunday evening.

"You...don't know who I am?" the woman asked.

"Nope. You could leave the bar, and we meet on the side of the road passing between shops, and I wouldn't even recognize you." Stiles knew that was a lie, but he wouldn't actually remember where he saw her, but he would know that he had seen her face before.

The woman looked at him, and she was confused as hell. Stiles just shrugged. It was a hard truth, but it was one that he learned to live with. He had known a lot of people in school that never remembered him at all once they were outside of the hallowed halls of Beacon Hills High School.

"I think that I made a mistake, and you are not who I think you are."

"Sure thing. Have a lovely evening." Stiles put his headphones over his ears again, even though there was nothing playing. As soon as he opened his laptop, the music started again. He logged back in and started to write up more on the profile. He copied his blank profile page over to a new one and began to write about the strange woman who was very confused about who she was talking to. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to use her, but he saved the document in his random characters folder. He had pulled a few out of there for a few tertiary characters for the book.

Stiles' food arrived, and he ate as he typed on the description of the city that the series was going to be based in. He wasn't even aware of anything that was going on around him. He was lost in a world of his own making. He was pretty sure that he drank another two or three beers, but as the empties disappeared and new ones were dropped off, it wasn't like he really kept count.

When he was done for the evening, Stiles packed up his laptop and handed the waitress his card before he finished off his last beer. He was glad that his apartment was literally just around the block. He wasn't going to be able to drive. He wasn't knock down drunk, but he was tipsy enough that he wouldn't want to make any decisions at all.

"You text me," the waitress said as she handed over his card. The tip was already written in, and all he needed to do was sign it. Stiles left the same amount pretty much every single time that he came in, so he didn't mind that part being there. It stopped him from having to math while he was tipsy. He made sure that she got the paper, and then he nodded at the bartender before slipping outside. He inhaled the smell of the street and was glad that there wasn't the smell of skunk as there was the week before. He laughed and headed toward home. He was glad that the elevator was working again as he didn't want to try stairs like he was at the moment.

As the elevator car rose, he texted Brenda about him being in the elevator, and then he typed in that he was inside of his apartment, but he wasn't going to send that until his door was open. The elevator slowed to a stop and did it's bouncing move before it opened up. He looked up as he saw the woman from before standing outside of Derek's apartment. Stiles ducked his head back down and headed toward his apartment. He didn't want to get in the middle of that any more than he already was. He knew that Derek was an asshole, but he wasn't aware that being nice was something that pissed him off. Stiles let himself into his place and then shut the door. He slid the deadbolt home as he hit send on the text. He texted his father that he was home as well and that he would be over in the morning for breakfast. He was done with the last book of his other series, so he was glad to have the chance to take a week and just do what he wanted with writing. He had a few short story ideas that he wanted to work on for some seasonal type publications that his publishing house was doing. It would help him clear his mind.

The ringing of his house phone had Stiles looking at it. No one called him on it except for telemarketers and people he didn't want to talk to. He only had it because of his father, who insisted that he needed it.

Stiles sighed and picked it up.

"Stilinski," Stiles said as he answered.

"Stiles," the voice said on the other end. It took a few seconds for his tipsy mind to link the voice with someone that he knew.

"Lydia Martin," Stiles said.

"You sound drunk."

"That's because I am."

"It's only nine on a Friday."

"Yup, and I was up at four to get some writing done because I couldn't sleep. So I started to get my drinking at five. What do you need?" Stiles looked around his apartment to locate where his couch was. He wasn't sleeping in his bed. Last time he did that, he had thrown up in his bed. At least out here, it was hardwood floors.

"What do you need?" Stiles asked.

"I realized that we hadn't chatted in a while."

"Yup, three years was the last time you texted me. Look, I'm tipsy, and you know how brutally honest I am about things when I am like this. If you want to complain about your latest break-up with your asshole of the year, call back in the morning, or you are going to hear all of the things that I never said before when I really should have after you broke up with Jackson in high school."

There was silence on the other end.

"I wanted to know what it's like to live next to Derek Hale," Lydia said in a rush.

"Who?" Stiles asked.

"Derek Hale, your next-door neighbor. You cannot tell me you don't know who he is."

"He's an asshole who looks like he wants to murder me when I give him the mail that my stupid mail carrier can't put in the right mail slot when he's here. I don't care anymore. I'm hanging up. If you want to talk again to sorrow, call after eleven, and I am done at my father's." Stiles hung up and looked at the phone. He wanted to know why it was such a big deal that Lydia Martin called him from New York when it was after midnight there to ask what it was like to live next door to Derek Hale. He didn't understand why anyone would want to know what it was like to live next door to Derek Hale. Then he thought about how in the hell Lydia even knew that he lived next door to Derek.

Stiles decided that he needed to get naked, and then he was going to pass out on the couch because his brain was trying to come up with another story idea based on that. He grabbed his cell phone from his pants pocket and turned on the recording feature and started to give out all of the questions that he needed to ask Lydia when she called him back but also about the whole story that he started to make about the strange neighbor that was so plain and ordinary but that everyone wanted to know about and the main character didn't understand what was going on.

* * *

"You live next to Derek Hale?" Melissa asked.

Stiles looked up at her as he tried to shove a fork full of eggs into his mouth. His brain was still a little broken.

"Why does anyone care who I live next door to?" Stiles asked. He let his eggs fall and then dropped his fork to his plate, and he looked at his father, who was looking at him in a little bit of shock.

"Stiles...have you not seen any movies over the last ten years?" His father asked.

"Uh, yeah. The good ones."

"Meaning comics, science fiction, and fantasy."

"Duh," Stiles said.

"Well, Derek Hale is one of the biggest actors in Hollywood at the moment. He's just coming off of a six-month sabbatical after an accident on set broke his leg and arm on the last day of shooting." Melissa looked a little dreamy-eyed as she said it.

"And?" Stiles asked.

"Wait, this is the same guy that you said looks like he wants to murder you?" Noah asked.

"Yes, Daddio. One and the same! At least I know if I am finally killed by him, it'll get turned into a movie. I want Thomas Brodie-Sangster to play me. Please. I don't care about anything else but that."

Stiles heard his father's sigh even though he wasn't looking at him.

"Stiles, what did you do to him to make him hate you?"

"Dude, nothing. I took his fucking mail to him, time and again after the mail person put it in my slot. I've taken it to the post office, and it still ends up in my mailbox. Today, I'm giving it to the Super. I don't care. He had his fucking sister come to me in the bar and tell me that I needed to leave him alone. I have no clue what I've done. I didn't even hit on him or make any funny comments about his eyebrows of death to his face. I was a nice and calm neighbor. I don't understand what his issue is, but it's nothing to do with me."

"Are you sure?" Melissa asked.

"Yes. The last four times, I've not even said a single word to him. He opens the door. Demands to know what I want. I hand him his mail, and he looks at me like I'm the most disgusting thing in the world and then he takes the mail with as little of his fingers touching it as possible and tosses it to a table, then he stares at me like he's thinking of the best way to dismember me."

"Did you-No. He was six years ahead of you in school."

"He lived here before?"

"Yes. The Hales. Like Cora and Spencer. They were on either side of you."

"Oh, yeah. Spencer Hale is a lot of fun. He sends me emails from college about my books. He's one of the few who know what I write. Mainly because when I used to babysit him after school until his mom could come and get him, he would read the stories over my shoulder as I wrote them."

"So, you are still friends with him?"

"Yes. We talked for three hours the other night while playing Destiny together. I've never mentioned my crazy neighbor to him. I wonder if I should."

"NO!" both Melissa and Noah yelled at the same time.

"Ugh, fine. I wonder if they make a spray to keep serial killers away. Something that smells like puppies and rainbow, and it freaks them out."

* * *

Stiles slipped in the closing door. His hands were in his pants pockets so that he didn't touch anything. He already knocked over enough things in his life; he didn't need to add studio equipment to it. Stiles did look down to make sure that his badge with his name on it was there, and it declared that he had access to everything. He knew that it didn't include the trailers of the actresses and actors, but then Stiles had no clue who most of the people who were cast as his characters were. He thought about looking, but the names that had been dropped were all known, and Stiles hadn't wanted to go into a research binge on all of them. Once he had met everyone and maybe once filming was wrapped, he would see some of the movies that they were in.

Filming had been going on for about three weeks so far, but today was the filming of the next to the last scene in the book, and it was Stiles' favorite. He really wanted to see that. He slipped up to the side of the room where the lady who had met him that morning was standing. She smiled at him. Stiles didn't care about people knowing that he wrote the book. Once the movie started having T.V. promos and actor and actress interviews, he was going to be pulled into the spotlight, but he had liked being mostly unknown when he wrote them and got as big as he had. His agent was already working on re-branding his next few books under his real name. M.G.S. was the weird name had chosen to write under, which everyone who knew him would know it was his initials. So the next books were going to be under "Stiles" M.G. Stilinski to keep it kind of the same. It was going to be a lot of fun when that happened.

"Is it okay if I stay here?" Stiles asked.

"Yes. You won't be bothered here or run into the chance of being in the shot here. The scene is nearly set up, and then they will be filming. The actors are coming onto the set in the next few minutes. Just keep your noises to yourself."

"Dude, I don't know a single thing about any of the actors or actresses who are in this. Except for one, but she had a bit part in Avengers, and that's what I know her from."

The lady and the three men with her looked at him like he was an idiot, but Stiles just shrugged and turned to look at where there was a whole bunch of people headed this way. He looked down at his shoes and where he was in relation to the line on the concrete below him. He felt his phone vibrate and ignored it. He was allowed to pull it out. He knew that, but he didn't want to. Stiles listened to the people talking around him as they talked about what they were doing and what was going on. He looked to the left and the bits of props that were actually around the area, markers Stiles figured. It was set on an alien planet, and there was a green screen everywhere.

"What in the hell are you doing here?" a man growled at him.

Stiles jumped, screamed, and flailed before he turned to look at Derek Hale in front of him. He put his back to the wall that was behind him. There were enough people that he figured that Derek wouldn't get to kill him. Derek's eyes dropped down to the I.D. that was around his neck. It had a picture of him in the clothes that he was in as well as the notations for where he was allowed.

"Dude, if I had known that you were going to be here, I would have just not come at all."

"You one of the contest winners?" Derek asked.

"Nope. You don't need to know why I am here." Stiles looked around, but the lady from before was gone. He didn't care. Whatever want he had of wanting to see this filming was gone. The outfit that Derek was in was one that Stiles knew well. He had drawn it out in detail for the books, little things inside of the story to help readers see what he was describing. He had seventeen such drawings in his first book and kept the number the same throughout the rest of the series. This outfit was something that only one character wore, and that was the main character. Stiles figured that he should have probably been a little more involved in the process for this. He hadn't wanted to get that bogged down because he didn't figure that anyone would be able to play Jaxos well enough for him. "Have a wonderful day, Mister Hale."

Stiles turned around and slipped between lighting spots and other people until he could get outside. He texted his driver. He was in L.A. for the next two months while he worked on his next books and to take care of anything that was needed for the filming of the main parts of the movie. It also got him out of Beacon Hills for a little while before his world was rocked with everyone knowing who he was.

"Mister Stilinski!" a woman yelled out.

Stiles stopped and turned around to see who it was. It was Debra who had been one of the first to greet him that day. She had other things she had to do.

"Already done? I didn't think that shooting was started yet."

"I needed to get out of there."

"Why? Did someone do something?" Debra looked worried.

Stiles knew if he pitched enough of a fit that Derek would be tossed from the film, but he wasn't going to be that kind of person.

"What did Hale say yo you?" someone else asked.

Stiles looked to the side at the same time that Debra did and saw that it was the one guy who had been behind the camera when he had come into the closed-off set.

"Nothing. Look. I know you guys don't know a lot about me, but Hale and I knew up in the same town. I just...I didn't know that he had been cast as Jaxos."

"You are from Beacon Hills?" the director asked.

"Yup, born and raised."

"Good. So we have a minor issue in that we have a kid who is here with Hale and he wants to watch his brother film, but he has ADHD, and we were afraid of him."

"Oh, Spencer is here?" Stiles asked. He looked around like he was going to randomly appear.

"You know him?"

"Yeah, we are ADHD buddies. He was diagnoses later than I was, so it took a long time to get him settled. I helped with that while I was in high school."

"Look, we have a costume malfunction on a few of the cast, so we are delaying an hour. I'll have Debra take you to where Spencer is, and then you can hang with him, and then you guys can watch from the room we have him. It's got a feed of the majority of the room so he can see. If you want to come and see it live, we can do that as well."

"Sounds great." Stiles would agree to anything as long as he could look at Derek on the screen and put anyone else in his place.

* * *

Stiles tugged at his tie and straightened it after doing so. He sighed in the mirror of the bathroom and slapped his cheeks to try and wake himself up. He was not made for this kind of life. He had been all over the world for premieres and shit for the movie. He was pretty much done with it all, but now he was in L.A. for the last one. So far, he had evaded Derek for every single one of them. This was the last, and then he could go home to Beacon Hills and be happy and content in his loner ways until the next movie was released.

Psyching himself up, Stiles left the bathroom and put a smile on his face as a few people around him looked at him. They dismissed him as someone not important, so he just found the area he was supposed to be at and dropped down into his seat. He looked around and was happy that he was at the dead back. The more important people were around the middle, and he got to watch them, even if he still had no clue who most of the people were.

Despite hating Derek Hale's guts, he had gone well as Jaxos. He had a hell of a lot of facial expressions, and it was like he used them up while he was acting and snoozing, and his face broke at the end o the day, and he was his glowery self after that. Stiles had seen a lot of him over the last year between when filming had started and then what followed.

Stiles was kind of a household name now. He got bitchy texts from his father as it wasn't hard to figure out where the Sheriff lived. A pair of teenage girls tried to break into his bedroom at his father's house to say that they had slept in his bed. It was creepy, but Stiles knew the kinds of things that teenagers got up to. Still, a security system had been installed in the house, and his father was thinking of putting up a wrought iron fencing that one could see through, but no one could get through around the house. Stiles was willing to pay for it as well, just to shut him up.

The movie was just as great as the first time that he had seen it. Stiles had been part of the scriptwriting, and therefore the things that were missed were easy to skip over and drop a mention of but not needed to really tell the whole tale. It was as good as it was going to get, and Stiles was just happy to see his story on the screen. He was also really fucking happy to see the next movie as it was when the real fun started. So far, for this one, there was just flirting between Jaxos and his companion, Del, but in the next book, they actually started a relationship, and he was kind of looking forward to Derek Hale having to kiss his co-star. Stripping away how much he hated Derek. Derek was hot like burning, and his co-star was pretty as fucking hell, and Stiles wanted to see the steaminess of the two men kissing.

Stiles slipped out to be able to breathe with all of the perfume and cologne that was in the room, Stiles felt like he was asthmatic like Scott was. He found the side door and propped it open with a glass that he found sitting on a table. He took a deep breath and coughed as he took in the fact that it seemed that he had found Derek's hiding place.

"Sorry, man." Stiles turned around, head back inside.

"What the hell do you have to do with this movie? You are everywhere for it? Are you one of the scriptwriters? I know that I heard someone back in Beacon Hills say you were a failing writer."

"Ah, you've been listening to Jackson too much," Stiles said. He let go of the door and turned around to face Derek again.

Derek's eyebrows spoke for him, and for once, they weren't saying murder.

"I'm not a failing writer. I think I've pretty much made it as a writer. I mean, I have Derek Hale playing the lead character in my book made movie, don't I?" Stiles asked.

Derek coughed, and Stiles saw smoke come out of his mouth. He saw that there was a cigarette in Derek's hand. "You wrote the books...You are M.G.S."

"Yup, I'm Mieczyslaw Genim Stilinski, called Stiles by my friends."

Derek's face did something weird, and Stiles wasn't sure what it was. Was Derek gonna try and be nice to him now? Now that he was someone who was worth something in his eyes? Stiles didn't want that. He knew that Derek still rented the apartment in the building, no one else had moved in, and D. Hale was still written on the mailbox.

"Stiles?" a voice called out. Stiles turned around to see that it was Debra. She was everywhere with him now. He was glad of it.

"Here." Stiles opened up the door and slipped back inside. He left the glass just in case the door shut behind him and locked Derek out. It was no less than he deserved. Still, he wasn't that much of an asshole, at least not where he was in the public eye like this. He tried to the thoughts of Derek out of his mind. He wasn't worth the time that Stiles spent thinking about him.

* * *

Stiles stretched in his chair and looked at the clock. He groaned as he had been at this all day, but the words were still jumbled in his head, and he wouldn't be able to sleep until he had them down. Early that morning, Stiles had been stuck on this part of the book after figuring out that what he had plotted was a huge plot hole. Two hours of working out and yoga in his apartment had given him the breakthrough that he needed, and after two hours of writing that our, he had been writing ever since. He had even skipped his daily routine to get it all down before he lost what he had in his head.

The sound of knocking on his door had Stiles pausing, but he just tucked his headphones over his ears better. He had slipped them back on to where he could hear a knock when he had been waiting on his dinner even after he had already eaten. He had a sign up that told everyone to fuck off. It wasn't like he did it often, just when he didn't want to be interrupted. Everyone who mattered actually followed that. His father would let himself in if it was something that he really needed to take care of.

Stiles let his mind go as he starts to type again. His words will all be down, and he could edit them after that. He didn't even let his eyes focus on the screen other than seeing the words appearing before he looked off to the side again.

When the last word was down, and his mind felt like it was able to rest now, he looked at the time. It was after one in the morning. Thankfully it was now Saturday, and that meant he could relax and sleep in. Stiles turned off his music and then pulled his headphones off. He stretched again and made sure to back up what he wrote in the three places that he did that and then shut down his computer. He was just standing up when the knock came at his door again. He glared at the door, but he figured that whoever was on the other side had heard him groaning while stretching. He walked to his front door and looked out the peephole, but he couldn't see anyone there. He backed away from the door and waited to see what was going to happen next. Maybe whoever was out there had left after he had responded after the last knock.

Stiles was just about to turn to head into his bedroom when the knock happened again. Looking out the peephole again, Stiles saw the shape of someone moving just off to the side. He slid the heavy-duty chain into its slot and then the steel bar as well. It would only allow the door to be opened a little bit.

"Whoever you are, it's after midnight. I need to be in bed. You need to be in bed. Unless you work night shifts or late or something, but then shouldn't you be there instead of here, bothering me?" Stiles asked. He tried to see the person but was distracted by the pile of books that were on the ground. He knew them. They were the special editions of his books and only sold in small numbers. He had made more drawings for the books, and the covers were not only on the slipcover but on the book as well. He had made the covers for all of his books, but the special editions were his babies. "Well, that's one way of making sure that I-" Stiles stopped when he saw that it was Derek standing at the side of the door. "What the hell do you fucking want?"

"I heard you in the apartment, so I waited. I didn't realize what time it was. I wanted to get your autograph on my books."

"And you think I'll give it to you? You who have not said a damned single kind word to me ever. Who kept on bringing you your mail even after you were an asshole to me. I could have left the mail there for the mail person to pick up, even though he never did. I could have kept on dropping it off at the post office only for it to keep on coming back to me. I was trying to be a fucking nice neighbor, and you keep on acting like I was the worst person in the world. Then you sicced your sister on me to tell me that I needed to leave you alone. Because that's exactly what I do with my fucking time is stalk an actor that I didn't know was an actor at the time. Hell, I didn't know it until I saw you on set. I've seen exactly one movie you have been in dude. Check your fucking ego at the bottom floor with this shit. I'm going to bed." Stiles slammed the door shut, and he made sure the deadbolt was thrown.

Stiles knew that he was pissed off and wouldn't get to sleep any time soon after that, so he pulled out his yoga mat and settled into his cooldown routine. He had to go through it three times to feel like he could sleep. He set his alarm for a later time in the morning and crashed in bed after scheduling a text to his father that he wanted to change the meeting for breakfast to meeting for lunch.

Morning, or what counted for morning for Stiles, came long before he wanted it to. He made a pot of coffee before slipping into the shower to help wake himself up the rest of the way. Then he drank his pot of coffee before checking the time and heading out. He stopped in the bookstore and smiled at the clerk before walking over and grabbing a few copies of each of his books from the shelf and signing them with random weird generic things. He had done it since his first had been published. They were always blasted around social media when found. He did it in a few other cities as well when he was there on various book things. He had a few friends who would take them to other cities as well when they traveled for work, swapping copies with book stores. It was well known, and so most small retailers would be glad of it. Since Stiles had been outed, he only did it in Beacon Hills now. There were enough rabid fans who showed up in Beacon Hills that it was making the store boom.

"How's the new book coming?" the clerk asked when Stiles came up with a few books that he had been eyeing the last time he was in there. He grabbed the two copies of the book at the registrar that had the movie cover on it and signed those before slipping them back into the stands.

"Great. I got through a bit of an issue with it yesterday. I'm sore from sitting for so long, so I'm taking the weekend to relax."

"Your Dad's book came in. Wanna take it to him?" the clerk held up a book that Stiles kind of recognized as one of the series of books that his father read. It was a spy series that wasn't the biggest, but the store had stocked with the first years ago. It hadn't hit the mainstream, but he knew that the store ordered in one for his father even though no one else wanted to read them.

"Sure. Thanks. Add it to my total."

The clerk put the book in a different bag before slipping that one into Stiles' bag. Stiles swiped his card when it was time, and he grinned as it went through, and then he nodded as he took his bag. He needed more coffee, so he decided to head to the coffee shop and get one before heading toward the diner, where he was supposed to meet his father for a meal together. The coffee shop was thankfully, mostly empty, and there was no one in line. He placed his order and played on his phone while he waited for it to be made. He looked around the place. It had been closed to inside orders for a month for a renovation the last time he had come to it. All o the orders were to-go and went through the window on the side of the building.

It looked great in there. A row of tables at the back had receptacles under them to allow for plugging in devices. Stiles wondered if that was something that he wanted to do this next week. He could get lost writing here as much as he could at home with his headphones. He wondered just what they would charge for a pot of coffee. He could keep the air pot there at his table and refill as needed with sugar. He pushed that thought away as he made his way out. He would talk to the owner. Stiles didn't want to become a distraction for the staff or customers.

Stiles looked at the time on his phone before heading to the diner. He would get there early, but his dad would be charmed about that because Stiles didn't arrive this early for anything unless there was the threat of pain. Which his agent was good at doing. He slid into his and his father's usual booth and drank at his coffee. The waiter held up a pot of coffee, but Stiles shook his head. He had enough coffee to kill himself; he needed something else. The waiter nodded and slipped into the back. A few minutes later, he was out with a carafe of water and the basket of teas.

"Thanks. Dad's coming, so his milkshake, please."

"Sure. You want one?"

"Duh," Stiles said before he laughed as Steve walked away. Stiles never remembered his name until they were talking, and no one wore name badges. Other than the teenagers who worked afternoons and evenings, it was mostly the same staff there and had been for years.

The door opened, and Stiles smiled as his father came in, but he let that drop when he saw who was with him. His father wasn't working that day, so it wasn't like Derek talking to him had to be something work-related. Unless it was. Noah had a look on his face that was serious, and it was pretty much his normal work face.

"I'll take care of that. You don't need to worry about it."

"Thanks." Derek looked at Stiles, and his face made that same look that it had when they had been in LA for the premiere. Stiles didn't care and just looked at his father and smiled.

"Stiles, you've met Derek Hale, right? Derek, this is my son, Stiles."

"We've met, Sir. Stiles, have a good day." Derek looked at Stiles a little strangely with that, but he didn't quite look Stiles in the eye either.

"You too, Derek!" Stiles called out as Derek turned to leave. Stiles was glad that he was leaving.

"Someone broke in your building. The Super caught them trying to steal the paper out of the shredder. So it's being moved to the office, and all mail that needs shredded can be dropped there now. I was called on it, given that it happened in your building. Derek came up to talk to me about it as he had seen it. He was shocked that I knew given it was my day off. He really didn't know that you were my son?" Noah asked.

"I have no clue what goes on in his head. Let's not talk about my idiot neighbor who thought that after midnight was a good time to try and get me to sign his special edition copies of my books, huh?"

Noah's eyes widened at that, and he nodded his head. He looked at the cup of hot tea on the table. "Already hit your coffee limit of the day?"

"Yup. I drank a whole pot. I spent all of yesterday in a writing frenzy. I didn't get to sleep until late. So tea the rest of the day and cutting it off so I can get a night's sleep tonight before the party tomorrow."

"Ah, that's right. The theater is doing a special showing of the movie, aren't they?"

"Yeah."

Stiles let his dad tell him about the weird things that fans had been doing around town from creeping in windows to see if Stiles or Derek were in a store to try to steal things that they were sure that either of them had touched. Stiles knew that it was weird to feel happy about that, and he was sure that a day would come where he didn't, but for now, he was more than happy to wait for that day to come. Right now, he was kind of basking in it.

* * *

Stiles opened up his mailbox, seeing the woman standing in the corner of the entryway. She was on the phone, and she looked a little familiar, but he wasn't sure who she was. He ignored it, though, and started to sort through the mail. His mail was tucked into the grocery bag on his arm. The junk mail was tucked under his arm, and then Derek's mail was kept in his hand. He walked to the Super's office and knocked. The door opened.

"Hey, more of Hale's mail?"

"Yes."

"I've kept emailing every single day, and I have started to attach images of it all as well as the box and each piece of mail. It's not like it's hard. There is no one else who had the issue in the building." Jim held out his hand for the mail, and Stiles handed it over. He walked to the shredder and fed his junk mail into it. There was now a basket beside it, and he saw that it was junk mail for some of the building.

"What's with the basket?"

"Eh, I take the mail sometimes and leave it in there, and when I am pissed off, I run it through. It makes me feel better, watching the paper get cut up into pieces. Like the jackass on the third floor."

"He ran over his tub again?" Stiles knew about it and knew that it was an issue not just for the third floor but the second when it drips through.

"Yup, and now he's getting evicted. It's enough property damage at this point, and he can't keep on paying it and refused to this time. Took him to court. He's got a week to get out. I've already notified your dad. Has Hale been giving you any more issues?"

"Nope. I haven't seen him in weeks, which I am happy about. I just don't understand what I did to him. I mean, I don't even play music during the day when I am writing, not without headphones. I don't make a lot of noise at all. The people above and below me are not complaining."

"Who knows. He's a weird one, but then the whole Hale family is. I mean, they do good for the town, but they are just a little weird." Jim looked at his computer and frowned before picking up his phone and taking a picture of each piece of mail. He then attached them to an email. Stiles let himself out of the office. It seemed that Jim was a little busy at the moment.

The woman was still on the phone, and she was now glaring at Stiles as he walked to the elevator and pressed the button to call the car. He watched her out of the corner of his eye. It seemed she was listening to someone on the other end as she wasn't saying a thing beyond hums, and a few yeses were thrown in. The bell chimed that the doors were opening, and Stiles slipped in. The woman followed along behind him, putting herself near the buttons for the floors. Stiles reached around her and pressed his. He waited to see if she was going to press one, but then he saw the way that she glared at whatever was being said. Laura Hale. She could only be there to meet with her brother. Stiles tries to make it to the doors before her, but she slips in front of them as they open on the top floor.

Stiles made for his front door as the woman walked to Derek's. He nearly had his door open when Derek's growl startled him.

"What do you want?" Derek asked.

Stiles was at least a little happy that he wasn't the only one who got that. He got the locks unlocked as the woman started to speak. He slipped into his apartment but didn't shut the door all the way.

"You've been home and only visited Mom and Dad once, Derek. This is your intervention. I don't care if your Mate does hate your guts from what Cora told me you hated him from the moment you first met him. So you are just reaping what you sowed on that. So why this set of angst?"

"Did you know that the Sheriff's son is the author of my favorite books?"

"I know you were raving about being able to meet that guy when you took on the movie. You all but bullied the studio into giving it to you so that you could meet him. What was he an asshole? I've heard that about Stiles, that he's an asshole to the people he barely knows. He'll defend those he loves to the death, though. Why?"

"Stiles is my mate," Derek said.

Stiles tried to put those words together. Mate. Soulmates were a piece of crock that was sold to kids who wanted to know why their parents didn't stay married. That they had someone out there that was perfect for them. Stiles knew that some people fell in love, and it lasted. His parents had loved each other even when his mother had gotten sick. His father had never moved on. Melissa was a dear friend, and they were good for each other, but there wasn't love there. Not that kind of love. They were best friends who bonded over raising Scott and Stiles. Because that was a joint effort with the way that both of them had to work more than normal being single parents.

Grabbing his phone from his pocket, Stiles searched Mates in the folder that he had all of his myths on the supernatural in. He had read everything and anything on the Internet about werewolves before he had started to write what was essentially the love story of Jaxos. He found the heading where he had written down what he had found on werewolf mates and then what he had done with it in the stories. Yeah, Mates was the kind of soulmate for werewolves. There were stories about them knowing as soon as they see them or even the first smell. Others, it wasn't until they kissed.

Stiles wondered what the hell was wrong with Derek. Did he think that kind of thing was real? Then the thing where Derek touched the mail all that much that Stiles had given him. The way that his face was so set on anger. The way that Stiles had noticed Derek at things and as soon as Derek would see him, he would run. Derek had rejected him as his Mate from the first meeting when he knew nothing about Stiles. He thought about all of the Hales and how they acted. They were all werewolves. Werewolves were a real thing, and he had been living next to one. Spencer had always said a few things that sounded weird, but Stiles understood them now.

Derek hadn't wanted Stiles when he was his weird next-door neighbor who the whole town thought was a struggling writer, but now it seemed he wanted him when he knew that Stiles was his favorite author. That wasn't the way that it worked. Stiles shut the door with a bang and locked it uptight. He then texted Spencer about the fact that his family was werewolves. It was moments later that the message came through demanding to know how he figured that out. Stiles just texted that Laura and Derek were not as quiet as they thought they were. He also told Spencer to tell his Alpha that Stiles wanted nothing to do with Derek outside of whatever professional things they needed to do.

* * *

The letter arrived with no fanfare when Stiles was on a world book tour for the first book of his new series. He was popular with the young adults as well as the adults with his books. Stiles had his mail being forwarded to him around the world since he was going to be gone for six months. He started in Japan and was now in Europe. Next, he would be headed to London for a trip around the Isles that was going to be a bunch of fun.

Stiles had a glass of wine in his hand when he found the letter. It was in an envelope, and it just had his name on it. There wasn't a return address or evidence that it had gone through the mail at all. It was in the bunch that his father had sent, so Stiles figured that it was from someone in Beacon Hills who had given it to his father.

_Dear Stiles,_

_I'm sorry._

_Getting to write those words makes me feel better, even though I know that it shouldn't. I hurt you in a way that I can never take back._

Stiles dropped his eyes down to the closing on the letter and saw the D.H. on it. It was a letter from Derek. Stiles wondered what he had done to make his father send the letter along. Stiles figured that he could at least read through it and see what the man had to say for himself.

_I was not in the best place, the first time that you had come to my door. I was missing acting, and even though I was healed up, the injuries that I sustained had to be treated like normal, and that meant that I had to hide away in Beacon Hills. I had just rented the apartment to get away from my family, who was pissing me off. It wasn't until the next time that you came to my door with my mail that I even noticed your scent and knew you were my Mate. Spencer told me that you figured out that most of the Hales are werewolves. I'm glad that you are at least not taking this out on Spencer. Though I guess you two have been close for a long time. I never understood his love of your novels until I started to read them once so I could have something to talk to him about. There is enough age difference between us that when he got older, we had less in common._

_Spencer is my favorite sibling. He treats me like I am still the annoying older brother that I am, even though I am a huge actor. I got into it because of him. I used to tell him stories when he was too awake to sleep before he was diagnosed as ADHD. I loved the way that he enjoyed it, so I tried out for a play in high school. I got better and better and found that I enjoyed it enough to go to college for it. Then I got a part in a role, and it all just blew up from there._

_Between the first time that you gave me my mail and the second, I met with lawyers about a few things, and that's where Jackson Whittemore talked about how annoying you were when he found out that I lived next door to you. He spoke of you like you were a disdainful piece of human flesh, and it transferred to me. He said you were e struggling writer who couldn't hold down a single job and had moved home and that your father paid for your apartment since he didn't want you at home. Then you brought mail over to me again, and I smelled on you the same things that I smelled on all of the fans who just wanted to go to bed with me. I concocted this story in my head that you were talking the mail carrier into giving you my mail, and you just wanted to sleep with me. My Mate was someone who didn't care about me. I built this thing up in my head. Then Cora confronted you, and she told me everything that you said and that you weren't lying._

_Sometime later, I was eating lunch with a friend at the diner when I heard the Sheriff talking about his son. How he had moved back home after there was a heart scare with him and how Stiles was taking good care of him and still working at writing at the same time. How he had refused to move back into the house even though the Sheriff would have loved that more. Then you came in and sat down with him. The look of pride on the Sheriff's face when he called you son._

_The person that I had built up in my head as someone who didn't care about his paying for an apartment while making his father pay for it instead of getting a job and the man who had his father look at him like that. I asked Cora about it, and she said that Whittemore hated you from near kindergarten and that it had only gotten worse over the years. Then she said that you were in the hospital to see him every day after his surgery, you cared for him._

_You were on the set of the movie, and I wasn't sure what to do with that, then it came out that you were the author, and I missed it. Here you were this person that I looked up to for writing what you do. You didn't care about what would sell. You had a trio of characters who were different than every other set of characters out there. A man who would fuck anything and didn't care about how it looked and how he loved someone who would never love him back, and he hid it through sex. An asexual woman who just wanted to kick ass. Then there was Jaxos, who loved so deeply that every person he lost while trying to protect them chipped away at him. You wrote a tale of them falling in love that wasn't even realized to be a romance until the kiss in the second book._

_It took me a long time to put the three versions of you that I had in my head into the person that you are, and I'm sorry that I hurt you before I took a chance to know who you were and not second-hand knowledge from someone else. My entire family is pissed at me, but no one had more anger than Spencer. He told me that I was no longer his brother when I told him and the family everything after Laura let it slip that I had found my Mate and ran them off. So I wouldn't be shocked if when you get home from the book tour that he's all but moved into your place. I hear him come and go from where you have him taking care of your plants. I think he stayed over there one night._

_I want to try again. I want to be someone who my Mate could maybe one day love. However, I can understand why you might not want to. I hope that maybe we can become at least cordial. If you find that you cannot do that, please let me know, and I'll find a new apartment somewhere in town._

_D.H._

Stiles looked at what was below that, and there was his cell phone number as well as an email address. Stiles figured that Derek knew that Stiles knew what his mailing address was. Stiles wasn't sure what he felt about the letter. He grabbed his newest notebook and stuff the letter inside of it. He would be carrying it around to make notes in about random things, so it would be good if he wanted to make notes on what he wanted to say to Derek.

Fame was something that Stiles new only a little about. Book writers never really got to the level that actors and actresses did. Yeah, there were a few that were recognizable, but they didn't have the chaos that anyone who acted did. Stiles was looking at things from the wrong side of the glass. Stiles thought about what he wanted to do, and while writing a letter sounded like a good idea, he wasn't home for a while yet, and playing around with getting letters to him would not work. So email. They could work up to texting or calls if he felt like it at a later point.

Stiles spent two days writing out a response by hand, and he took forever to type it out into his email. He sent it along before he could over edit it. His agent hated it when he did that with his drafts. He would worry a bone to nothing if he was left with it for too long. He knew the moment it was opened up, and he was glad that it had been only a few minutes later that the notification hit his inbox that it had been opened.

* * *

Stiles looked up from his phone as the door opened to the apartment. He let his head drop back as he looked at Derek as he walked to the stove to check on the casserole that was in there. Stiles tried to move but huffed as hid body was still not doing what he wanted. His current round of pain killers and muscle relaxers were not friendly, but at least he wasn't as loopy as he had been with the first round. Derek shoved the oven door shut before he turned around to look at Stiles. That little line of worry on his forehead disappeared as he saw Stiles looked at him with a smile on his face.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like my mind is not in my body," Stiles said.

Derek smiled as he walked over to Stiles and crouched at his side. Stiles forced his head to turn that way. He tried to move again, but nothing was working. He had been going insane in the hospital after the car wreck he had been in and so had been discharged, but a nurse came by and checked on him three times a day, thankfully it was all staff from the hospital who were released from their jobs to come and do it. Anything for the Sheriff, they said.

"Well, that's because it's not. It's in the void like it always is."

Stiles stuck his tongue out at Derek, but all that did was make his lover lean over and try and capture it between his lips. Stiles laughed and forced his good arm up, and he wrapped it around Derek to pull him back down into a kiss. Derek allowed it even though he could break it.

"How are you really feeling?"

"Eh, I want to roll onto my side but had to wait for you. I'm not in pain, but I am hungry. Why don't you help me up into a sitting position, and then after lunch, we can cuddle and watch something?"

"Sure. I think I got a few hours of that game show you like and three hockey games."

"Hmm, hockey. I wanna watch guys hit each other over the frozen water."

Derek laughed, and his eyes crinkled. It was Stiles' favorite look on him, and outside of acting, he was the only one that put that smile on his face. The last two years had been hard with Derek and Stiles talking through email for six months before Stiles texted him and then another six months of that before Stiles had allowed the werewolf to take him on a date. It had been a lot of fun once Derek, and he had aired all of their issues in email and texting form. Hell, Stiles was pretty sure they were on more solid ground than any other couple out there. Which was why Stiles was glad that he had him with his leg being shattered and his arm broken after the car wreck in LA. Stiles had been parked and checking messages on his phone before getting out to head into a shop. A drunk driver had crashed into his car.

Stiles remembered little of that day in the hospital before he had gone into surgery, but the main thing was how worried Derek was about him. It had been nearly another person in the room with them. Derek had even sent someone to get his father and tell him that he was fine but in surgery. Derek had been there with him ever since. He was off between movies for the next month anyway, having taken time off since Laura was getting married. It had worked well as that meant that the Hales were around to keep an eye on Stiles when Derek had to do wedding things with his sister.

"I love you," Derek said as he brushed his fingers over Stiles' cheek. There was a fading bruise there from where his cheekbone had been fractured a little from the force of his head whipping to the side in the car and hitting the steering wheel because the airbag didn't deploy.

"Love you, too, Der," Stiles said. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then held out his good arm.

They were old hat at getting Stiles up and moved around now. The bed was where Stiles spent most of the morning and then in the late morning, he was moved to the living room where he split his time between laying on his back on the couch, on his side on the couch, and sitting in the large plush chair where he settled with the laptop and wrote some. He wasn't getting anywhere near the words that he got before, but at least his publisher had pushed back the next book. He was hoping to get it done by the original deadline as once he was less drugged, there still wasn't a lot that he was going to be able to do other than sit and write, but he was not telling his agent that.

"Thank you," Derek said after he got Stiles settled with his leg in the best position for it on the couch.

"You are welcome, but for what?"

"Taking a chance on me. You could have told me to go to hell."

"You tried, and that was more than a few people have done. If we were still having issues in writing and text, then I was going to tell you to go away, but you tried. You were also adorable at the signing that you came to for that one release of the second book for the movie. You tried, and that meant more than what you had done before." Stiles knew that he would probably have to tell Derek that a few more times, but it was that signing that he had gone to that had made Stiles start to feel like he was getting to know the real Derek.

It had all been worth it too.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story!
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot.


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